Method and system to connect multiple SCSI initiators to a Fibre Channel fabric topology using a single N-Port

ABSTRACT

A method and system for connecting multiple initiators to a storage area network (SAN) via a Fibre channel fabric using a single N_port fibre channel switch. The multiple initiators are associated with a common domain identification (DID), each initiator having a unique source identification (SID). The method includes initiating a communication exchange between at least one of the initiators and the SAN, the exchange including transmission of a command frame. The method also includes monitoring the initiated exchange communication exchange, and replacing the unique SID of one of the initiators with an SID of the fibre channel switch.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/600,837, filed Aug. 12, 2004, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to a network of devices. Moreparticularly, it relates to an apparatus and system for coupling anddecoupling data storage initiator devices to a network withoutdisrupting the network.

2. Related Art

The data storage market includes a number of vendors and products.Unfortunately, integrating various products from different vendors isdifficult, and it requires a substantial investment due to a lack ofinteroperability standards.

In one instance, in order to increase system performance and lowercosts, the manufacturers of blade servers and other storage devices areconsidering integrating a Fibre Channel fabric switch into theirdevices. However, a blade server with an integrated fabric switch islikely to have difficulties communicating to an external network becauseof incompatibilities and proprietary features. The conventional wisdomis that such devices are connected using a Fibre Channel E-Port orB-Port topology, thereby allowing fabric related information to becommunicated. But, this causes many currently available Fibre Channelfabric switches to be reconfigured to a mode in which proprietaryfeatures are turned off and functions are disabled, resulting in adisruption of the network. It is also likely to create networkmanagement problems.

What is needed, therefore, are new ways for integrating products fromdifferent venders to an existing network that overcome the deficienciesnoted above.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Consistent with the principles of the present invention as embodied andbroadly described herein, the present invention includes a method andsystem for connecting multiple initiators to a storage area network(SAN) via a Fibre channel fabric using a single N_PORT Fibre channelswitch. The multiple initiators are associated with a common domainidentification (DID), each initiator having a unique sourceidentification (SID). The method includes initiating a communicationexchange between at least one of the initiators and the SAN, theexchange including transmission of a command frame. The method alsoincludes monitoring the initiated exchange communication exchange, andreplacing the unique SID of one of the initiators with an SID of theFibre channel switch.

Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as thestructure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention,are described in detail below with reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS/FIGURES

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute partof the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and,together with the general description given above and detaileddescription given below, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example apparatus for coupling anddecoupling multiple processing devices to a network according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an example system according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustration of an embodiment of the presentinvention configured for operation as an N_PORT Mode Model;

FIG. 4 is block diagram illustration of extended link service frame flowin accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustration of a phantom port to N_PORT datapath in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustration of an N_PORT to phantom port datapath in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustration of an exemplary IO table inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating operation of a managementagent and routing of frame traffic according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method of practicing a firstaspect of an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method of practicing a secondaspect of an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following detailed description of the present invention refers tothe accompanying drawings that illustrate exemplary embodimentsconsistent with this invention. Other embodiments are possible, andmodifications may be made to the embodiments within the spirit and scopeof the invention. Therefore, the following detailed description is notmeant to limit the invention. Rather, the scope of the invention isdefined by the appended claims.

It would be apparent to one skilled in the art that the presentinvention, as described below, may be implemented in many differentembodiments of hardware, software, firmware, and/or the entitiesillustrated in the drawings. Any actual software code with thespecialized, controlled hardware to implement the present invention isnot limiting of the present invention. Thus, the operation and behaviorof the present invention will be described with the understanding thatmodifications and variations of the embodiments are possible, given thelevel of detail presented herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example apparatus 100 for coupling and decouplingmultiple processing or initiator devices to a network according to anembodiment of the invention. The apparatus 100 includes a network switch102, an exchange manager 104, a processor 106, and a memory 108.

The network switch 102 includes a network port 110, an initiator port112, and a processor port 114. The network port 110 is configured forcoupling to an external network. The initiator port 112 is configuredfor coupling to multiple processing or initiator devices such as, forexample, server blades. The processor port 114 couples the networkswitch 102 to the processor 106.

In an embodiment, the apparatus 100 operates in a loop topology modereferred to herein as NL_PORT mode. In this mode, the apparatus 100connects to an external network such as, for example, a Fibre Channelfabric via the network port 110 such that the network port 110 operatesas an NL_PORT, as defined in the Fibre Channel standards. As will beunderstood by persons skilled in the relevant art(s), an NL_PORT is aspecialized loop port topology optimized to pass data trafficefficiently to a connected FL_PORT on a fabric switch. More detailsabout this mode of operation are provided below.

In another embodiment, the apparatus 100 operates in a non-loop modereferred to herein as N_PORT mode. In this mode, the apparatus 100connects to an external network such as, for example, a Fibre Channelfabric via the network port 110 such that the network port 110 operatesas an N_PORT as defined in the Fibre Channel standards.

It is a feature of the apparatus 100 that selected portions can beformed using commercially available hardware. For example, in anembodiment, the network switch 102 is a commercially available networkswitch such as, for example, Broadcom Corporation's BCM8440 FibreChannel fabric switch, available from Broadcom Corporation, IrvineCalif. The processor 106 can be formed using a MIPS processing coreavailable from MIPS Technologies, Inc., Mountain View Calif.

The exchange manager 104 is responsible for proper translation of FibreChannel communication exchanges for all fiber channel protocol (FCP)frames that are routed to an eXM port 118 a and an eXM port 118 b ofexchange manager port module 118. As shown in FIG. 1, the eXM port 118 aand eXM port 118 b are respectively coupled to Pe port 116 a and Ne port116 b of application port module 116. In an embodiment of the presentinvention, the exchange manager 104 is implemented as a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) device. The present invention, however,is not restricted to this implementation.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example system 200 according to an embodiment ofthe invention. The system 200 includes an aggregator circuit 202 and aplurality of initiator devices 204. The aggregator circuit 202 couplesthe initiator devices 204 to an external network 210.

As shown in FIG. 2, the aggregator circuit 202 includes two networkswitches 102 a and 102 b. The network switches 102 a and 102 b each havea network port 110 and an initiator port 112. In an embodiment, eachnetwork switch 102 operates in NL_PORT mode and each network port 110operates as an NL_PORT as defined in the Fibre Channel standards. In anembodiment, the network switches 102 a and 102 b are coupled to oneanother by an inter-switch communications link 206.

The initiator devices 204 each include a port 208, implemented as anN_PORT in an embodiment, in accordance with Fibre channel standards. Theport 208 is used to couple an initiator device 204 to an initiator port112 of the network switch 102. In the embodiment, the initiator devices204 are Fibre Channel Protocol-Small Computer System Interface(FCP-SCSI) initiator devices, and the initiator port 112 includes aplurality of FC-FS2 point-to-point ports for connecting to FCP-SCSIinitiator devices.

As noted above, in embodiments of the present invention, the networkswitches 102 of the apparatus 100 and the system 200 are fabricswitches, which operate in an NL_PORT mode. This is a specialized FibreChannel switch architecture mode, in which the network ports 110 operateas FC-AL2 loop ports (referred to herein as NL_PORTs), configured forcoupling to an external network, and the initiator ports 112 operate asFC-FS2 point-to-point ports (referred to herein as N-ph_PORTs),configured to couple to FCP-SCSI initiator devices. The network ports110 and the initiator ports 112 are coupled together through a bufferednon-blocking switch backplane.

In NL_PORT mode, input/output (I/O) frame traffic from an initiatordevice 204 is routed through its associated initiator port 112 of thenetwork switch 102 to the network port 110. The network port 110 routesingress frames through the initiator port 112 to an appropriateinitiator device 204 based on the arbitrated loop physical address(ALPA) component of a DID.

In N_PORT mode, the apparatus 100 acts as an N_PORT aggregator blade(NAB). In the N_PORT mode, input/output (I/O) frame traffic from anappropriate initiator device 204 is routed through its associatedinitiator port 112 of the network switch 102, through the exchangemanager 104, to the network port 110. The network port 110 routesingress frames through the initiator port 112, through the exchangemanager 104 to an appropriate initiator device 204 based onpoint-to-point Fibre channel topology standards.

The basic requirement of the NAB 100 is to replace the Port address andworld wide name (WWN) of each of the FCP-SCSI initiator devices 204 witha Port address of the NAB N-ph PORTs of the initiator ports 112 a and112 b. In this manner, the external network (fabric) 210 will only seethe N_PORT of the NAB 100.

In order to replace the Port address and WWN of the FCP-SCSI initiatordevices 204 with the Port address of the NAB N-ph PORTs 112 a and 112 b,the Fibre Channel Exchange protocol requires that for a given SID(internal SCSI Initiator in this case) the originator exchangeidentifier (OX_ID) should not be duplicated. In conventional systems,this requirement is significant because it is likely that each of theSCSI Initiator devices 204 will be using the same OX_ID. This isespecially true, for example, when the SCSI Initiator devices 204 aremanufactured by the same vendor. Thus, it is necessary to replace thePort addresses and WWNs to prevent duplication.

In order to provide a unique OX_ID for each communication exchangegenerated by each of the SCSI Initiator devices 204, the NAB 100desirably monitors the exchange and performs replacements at the Loginlevel and Exchange level of the Fibre Channel protocol.

FIG. 3 is a more detailed illustration of the NAB 100 shown in FIG. 1.The NAB 100 shown in FIG. 3 is configured for operation in N_PORT mode.In FIG. 3, as noted above, the NAB 100 includes the network switch 102and the exchange manager 104. When configured for operation in N_PORTmode, the initiator port 112 operates as multiple phantom ports and thenetwork port 110 operates as an N_PORT. Firmware operating internal tothe processor 106 of FIG. 1, forms an NAB management agent 300.

The network switch 102, for example, provides the DID routing andextended link services (ELS) filtering capabilities. The processor 106,for example, provides the Link Services, Name server and all the ELSprocessing for the NAB 100. All of the ELS type of frames for FibreChannel related exchange session management will be handled by the NABManagement Agent 300.

A frame received by one of the Phantom ports 112 is routed by thenetwork switch 102. The network switch 102 determines whether the frameis to be routed to the exchange manager 104, the processor 106, or tothe N_PORT 110. Similarly, a frame received at the N_PORT 110 will berouted by the network switch 102 to the exchange manager 104, theprocessor 106, or to one of the Phantom ports 112.

Frames routed to the exchange manager 104 will undergo addresstranslation before being sent back to one of the Phantom ports 112.Frames sent to the processor 106 are primarily for Link management andfor ELS management. Frames can be sent directly between any one of thePhantom ports 112 and the N_PORT 110 if the NAB 100 is configured tohave an E_PORT or NL_PORT, instead of N_PORT, connection into theexternal network 210.

The ELS and other Fabric management frames are handled within the NABManagement Agent 300. The NAB management agent 300 receives ELS framesthat have been filtered by the network switch 102. In the presentinvention, for example, these frames will not be sent to the exchangemanager 104. The network switch 102 will route the ELS frames to theprocessor 106. The NAB Management Agent will 300 be responsible for allthe address translation for these frames and is configured to receiveELS frames from the Phantom ports 112 and from the N_PORT 110.

After a Fabric Login session, and when the NAB 100 is connected to anF_PORT, the ID of the Network Port 110 will not be a default value. Inthis case the external network 210 (Fibre channel Fabric), for example,will assign an address for the network Port 110 (N_PORT) to the NAB 100during the Fabric Login process at the network Port 110 side.

Similarly, on the Phantom port side of the NAB 100, the Initiators 204will Login to the Phantom ports 112. The Phantom ports 112 will appearto the Initiator ports 208 as F_PORTs and the Initiators 204 will,themselves, login as N_PORT devices. The Initiator ports 208 will beassigned Port IDs by the NAB Management Agent 300.

The Port ID assignment is performed using arbitrated physical loopaddress (ALPA). During this process, the Initiator ports 208 will beassigned ALPAs starting from 0×01 through 0×0F. ALPA 0×00 is desirablyreserved for the processor port 114 (see FIG. 1). The network switch 102ports connected as Phantom ports and as an Ne_PORT (e.g. the port 116 bof FIG. 1), will be programmed for ALPA based routing. The networkswitch 102 ports connected as N_PORT and as Pe_PORT (e.g., the port 116a) will be programmed for Area based routing.

FIG. 4 provides an illustration of ELS frame mapping, as implemented inan embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, ELS frames460 originating with the Initiators 204 are filtered by the Phantomports 112 of the network switch 102, and then routed to the processorport 114. Next, the NAB Management Agent 300 will be interrupted andwill read out the ELS frame from a CPU TX port 462. After the ELS framehas been modified by the NAB Management Agent 300, it can be writtenback into a CPU RX port 464 and queued to the proper RX queue for theN_PORT 110. The final modified ELS frame will subsequently be sent tothe N_PORT 110.

Similarly, ELS frames 466 originating with the External network 210 arefiltered at the N_PORT 110 of the network switch 102 and then routedthrough the CPU TX and RX ports 464 and 462. The NAB Management agent300 can then send the ELS frames 466 to one or more of the Phantom ports112.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of phantom port to N_PORT mapping, asimplemented in an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, atranslate 10 (exchange) is originated by a particular one of theinitiators 204. The particular Initiator sends, for example, a FibreChannel Protocol command (FCP_CMND) frame whose destination is a DIDthat needs to be routed through NAB 100. The exchange manager 104receives the frame on the eXM-p Port 118 a and performs the necessaryaddress replacements to the FCP_CMD frame.

The exchange manager 104 will process the command frame and create aPhantom port 112 to N_PORT 110 mapping for that exchange. The exchangemanager 104 will also create a new entry in an internal IO table 500,corresponding to this exchange. The exchange manager 104 will replacethe SID of the particular one of the Initiators 204 with the SID of theaddress of the N_PORT 110.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the exchange manager 104 then creates a newFCP_CMND frame, forwarding the new FCP_CMND frame to the network switch102 N-pe Port 116 b. Subsequent frames for that exchange are received byexchange manager 104 and handled as specified by its corresponding IOtable entry.

The corresponding response frame from a Target communicating with theparticular one of the Initiators 204 via the external network 210, forexample, will be received at the N_PORT 110 of network switch 102. Theresponse frame will then be routed through the Ne Port 116 b to the eXMNPort 118 b of the exchange manager 104. The frame is looked up in an IOtable 500 entry that is related to the exchange and the necessaryaddress replacements are made to the response frame. The exchangemanager 104 will replace the DID of the frame with the DID of theparticular one of the initiators 204. This frame is will now be sent tothe Ne port 116 b. The network switch 102 can now route this frame tothe appropriate Phantom port 112 that corresponds to the particular oneof the initiators 204.

In order to do a proper translation of exchanges and Fibre Channel framesequences, the exchange manager 104 will desirably track an ExchangeBegin, Exchange End, Sequence begin, Sequence end and the type of FCPcommand. For proper Exchange translation for an N_PORT device, theSequence ID will desirably be transposed so that SEQ_ID reuse ismaintained as defined, for example, in Fibre Channel_FS-2.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an exemplary IO table 500 arrangement. Whenthe exchange manager 104 receives the first Exchange from an exchangeoriginator, such as one of the initiators 204, it identifies theexchange and creates a new entry in the IO table 500. This provides theexchange manager 104 a starting point for tracking subsequent frames ofthe exchange. The SID, OX_ID, and SEQ_ID of the first Exchange frame isreplaced with the aSID (SID of the NAB N_PORT SID), aOX_ID ( the newOX_ID generated by the eXM), and the a_SEQ_ID (new SEQ_ID generated bythe exchange manager 104).

When a Responder sends the first response frame having the same aOD_ID,the exchange manager 104 performs an IO Table 500 look up using theaOX_ID as an index. The exchange manager 104 will then retrieve theoriginal SID, OX_ID and the SEQ_ID and replace those fields.Additionally, it will save the responder exchange identifier (RX_ID) inthe IO table 500 and replace the RX_ID of the response frame with a newaRX_ID. To simplify this process, the exchange manager 104 will use thesame value of the aOX_ID. For subsequent frames from the originator, theIO table 500 will be indexed by the aRX_ID of the frame.

By simplifying the process as noted above, simpler memory schemes can beused to index into the IO table entries. An exemplary technique forindexing the IO table 500 might include the First Exchange framecreating a new entry using the aOX_ID as the index. For frames from theresponder, the aOX_ID is used as the index, and any subsequent Initiatorframes can use the aRX_ID.

FIG. 8 illustrates how one can think of the apparatus 100 as having adividing line 802 at the midsection of network switch 102, whichseparates network port 110 from initiator port 112.

As shown in FIG. 8, management frame processing is different for thedifferent port types. Accordingly, management agent 300 can be thoughtof as including a front-end management agent 402 and a back-endmanagement agent 404. The front-end management agent 402 performsoperations relating to specific tasks associated with the network port110. The back-end management agent 404 performs operations relating tospecific tasks associated with the initiator port 112. These specifictasks include handling unsolicited management request frames from thenetwork port 110 and the initiator port 112. Depending on processinglogic, these frames may be filtered and forwarded, or the frames may beprocessed directly by the management agent and a management responsereturned.

In embodiments of the present invention, the management agent 300 isresponsible for one or more of the following tasks:

1. Forwarding non-disruptive (query/get) oriented management frames fromthe initiator port 112 (i.e., the N-ph_PORTs) to the network port 110;

2. Re-mapping back-end N-ph_PORT network provider identification (NPID)and world wide port name (WWPN) parameter field values to fixed NPID andWWPN values in all management frames;

3. Internally processing and replying to registration orientedmanagement frames issued from initiator devices coupled to the initiatorport 112;

4. Performing device registration for initiator devices coupled tonetwork port 110; and

5. Hiding back-end initiator port connection oriented events (portup/port down) from the external network 210 (e.g., the back-end portsshould be considered I/O processing engines, and the addition or removalof these back-end ports should be isolated from the front-end port andthe external network).

The front-end management agent 402 is responsible for management frameprocessing related to the network port 110. For example, the front-endmanagement agent 402 processes port initialization and initiates deviceregistration for the network port 110. In the present invention, thescope of frame processing is the full required protocol coverage of ELSand Name Server frames mentioned in Fibre Channel-FLA 2.7.

The front-end management agent 402 assigns a unique static WWPN/WWNN foreach network port 110 (and each ALPA in NL_PORT mode). The WWPN remainsfixed and static regardless of the actual initiator devices connected tothe back-end N-ph_PORTs. Front-end management agent 402 also isresponsible for processing all unsolicited ELS and Fabric Service framessent from a fabric.

In embodiments, front-end management agent 402 is responsible forprocessing one or more of the following:

1. Network port Initialization;

2. Device registration with a network controller (e.g., FLOGI);

3. Device registration with Name Server (NS set operations);

4. Rx RCSN forwarding and fan-out to back-end N-ph_PORTs (exchangecleanup handling);

5. Rx generic ELS processing;

6. Proxy agent probing;

7. Rx unsolicited FCP-SCSI discovery command(s);

8. SCSI Inquiries; and

9. Vital product data page information.

The front-end management agent 402 performs port initialization for eachfront-end port, for example, in the system 202. In an embodiment, thenetwork port initializes using Fibre Channel-AL2 loop protocol inNL_PORT mode. The back-end ports (N-ph PORTs) associated with thefront-end ports are affected by the port-up and port-down eventsoccurring on the front-end network ports. When a front-end network port110 goes down, it forces each associated N-ph_PORT into an offlinestate, for example, by sending NOS continuously to all associated N-phPORTs.

When the network port 110 returns to proper operation, it completes nameserver and fabric logic services, and it allows associated N-ph ports tocome on line. Back-end management agent 404 assigns port IDs to theN-ph_PORTs and sends accept responses to N-ph port registrationrequests. Initiators devices on the N-ph PORTs as part of the targetdiscovery process send PLOGIs to target devices. Back-end managementagent 404 processes the PLOGIs (modified WWNN and WWPN) and forwardsthem to each target.

The front-end management agent 402 sources fabric logic (FLOGI) requestsfor each front-end N_PORT (or for each ALPA exposed on an NL_PORT). Afixed WWPN/WWNN is used for these devices. The public address domain andareas components (e.g., DDAA[XX]) returned from the fabric assigned tothe front-end port in the FLOGI accept frame is used for associatedback-end ports. Back-end management agent 404 uses this internallyrecorded address identifier (DDAAXX) for back-end N-ph_PORT FLOGIresponse processing. Registration for state change notification(s) isperformed for each ALPA exposed on an NL_PORT using a storage resourcecard (SRC) protocol.

The front-end management agent 402 also sources non-stop (NS)registration frames for each front-end ALPA exposed on an NL_PORT. Thisincludes registration of Fibre Channel-4 types RFT_ID, device port idRPN_ID (fixed WWPN value), device port name RNN_ID, device node name:RSNN_NN (fixed WWNN assigned value), and the symbolic port name RSPN_ID.Registration is performed for each NL_PORT exposed to the externalnetwork.

The front-end management agent 402 is responsible for receiving andprocessing unsolicited RSCN request frames from a fabric controller foreach front-end NL_PORT. The front-end management agent 402 replicatesregistered state change notification (RSCN) events and forwards theappropriate data to associated back-end N-ph_PORTs.

The front-end management agent 402 receives and processing unsolicitedELS frames for FCP-SCSI initiator devices, for example, according to theFibre Channel-FLA 2.7 standard. The frames/requests are directlyprocessed and returned by the front-end management agent 402. Theresponses return information defining a FCP-SCSI initiator, and nointeraction with back-end management agent is required. In embodiments,front-end management agent 402 support the following ELS frames as ELSResponder: ADISC, FAN, PLOGO, PDISC, PLOGI, PRLI, PRLO, RNC, RRQ, RSCN.In selected embodiments, the following ELS frames also are supported:ABTX, RES, RLS, RSI, RSS, SCN, SCR, TPRLO.

Many fabric switch devices have proxy discovery agents that probe edgedevices in order to help populate the Name Server database. Thesedevices can source ELS requests to the network port 110. The front-endmanagement agent 402 satisfies requests for information from thesedevices about the network port 110.

The front-end management agent 402 receives and processes unsolicitedFCP-SCSI discovery commands. These requests also are processed andreturned by the front-end management agent 402, returning informationdefining a FCP-SCSI initiator, without interaction with the back-endmanagement agent 404. The following FCP-SCSI FCP commands are supported:Test Unit Ready, Inquiry-Standard, and Inquiry-Vital Product Data. TheVital Product Data page returns the WWPN/WWNN of network port 110.

The back-end management agent 404 is responsible for management frameprocessing related to the N-ph_PORTs (initiator port 112) connected toback-end FCP-initiator devices. The back-end management agent 404processes port initializations and replies to device registrationrequests for the N-ph_PORTs. The internal behavior of back-endmanagement agent 404 allows initiator devices to operate as if they weredirectly connected to the external network (e.g., Fabric Switch) coupledto the network port 110.

In N_PORT mode, each initiator device coupled to an N-ph_PORT canoperate as if it were the only device coupled to the network port 110.This is accomplished by specialized forwarding and filtering of ELS andFabric Services frames, as illustrated in FIG. 8. Fabric controller andname server registration is isolated and hidden from the externalnetwork/connected fabric. General WWPN re-mapping to a fixed WWPN(related to network port 110) occurs for ELS and Fabric Service framessourced by back-end ports.

The back-end management agent 404 is responsible forprocessing/performing one or more of the following:

1. Port Initialization (N-ph_PORTs);

2. Unsolicited ELS/Fabric Service frames required for FCP-SCSIinitiators by Fibre Channel-FLA 2.7;

3. Fabric Control FLOGI frame requests;

4. Name Server registrations; and

5. Name Server queries.

The back-end management agent 404 performs port initialization for eachback-end N-ph PORT. The ports initialize using Fibre Channel-FSpoint-to-point protocol. The back-end N-ph PORTs are only allowed tobecome “active” ports after their associated front-end network port 110has been initialized and achieved an active state. At this point, anN-ph PORT sends name server registration and fabric login requests tothe back-end management agent 404. The back-end management agent 404assigns a port ID to the N-ph_PORT and sends accept responses toregistration requests. An initiator device on the N-ph PORT then sends aPLOGI. Back-end management agent 404 filters the PLOGI WWNN/WWPN andforwards it. The back-end management agent 404 captures and processesthe PLOGI ELS_ACC frame from the target and forwards it to theN-ph_PORT.

All ELS and Fabric Service unsolicited requests sourced from back-endports are received and processed by the back-end management agent 404.

In general, both the unsolicited requests and solicited responses areNPID/WWPN/WWNN filtered as follows:

1. The unsolicited requests from N-ph_PORTs (which are forwarded to thefabric) have the N-ph_PORT initiators true NPID/WWPN/WWNN remapped tothe associated network port 110 device NPID/WWPN/WWNN; and

2. The solicited response frames returned from the fabric have thenetwork port 110 NPID/WWPN/WWNN remapped to the N-ph_PORT initiatorsactual NPID/WWPN/WWNN.

Specialized handling of specific ELS/Fabric Service unsolicitedrequested are described in more below.

The back-end management agent 404 is responsible for receiving andresponding to all FLOGI frames generated by N-ph_PORT devices. Theserequests are directly processed and returned by back-end managementagent 404.

Internal checking/processing is performed on the FLOGI serviceparameters requested by each N-ph_PORT initiator device. The requestedservice parameters must be supported by the FLOGI service parametersnegotiated by the associated frond-end network port device, and they arereturned based on the negotiated front-end port service parameters.

The NPID assigned to the each back-end port is based on the domain andarea (DDAA - - - ) address components assigned to the associatedfront-end network port. The ALPA/device component of the address ( - - -XX) maps to fixed ALPA addresses assigned to each back-end N-ph_PORT.

Returned link level negotiated values such as BBC, are processed basedon the local link resources of the N-ph_PORT.

The back-end management agent 404 also processes Fabric Service NameServer Registrations sourced from back-end N-ph_PORTs. Theseregistration requests are terminated and acknowledge directly by theback-end management agent 404. They are not forwarded to the Fabric asit is an objective of the present invention to hide or to virtualize theactual back-end initiators. All unsolicited Name Service registrationsrequests (0×X2XX type match) are acknowledge without the requirement forestablishing and maintaining a local database.

Also as illustrated in FIG. 8, the back-end management agent 404forwards Fabric Service Name Server Query/Get requests (0×X1XX typematch) sourced from back-end N-ph_PORT. These registration requests areforward through the associated network port 110. The frames arefiltered, and references to NPID or WWPN/WWNN are replaced as describedabove.

Frame filtering is performed on unsolicited requests forwarded to theexternal network/fabric such that N-ph_PORT id/name data are changed tothe appropriate network port 110 id/name data. Frame filtering isperformed on the solicited responses returned from the externalnetwork/fabric such that the network port 110 id/name data are changedto the appropriate N-ph_PORT id/name data. These query operations arenon-disruptive to the external network/fabric, and hence the forwardedprotocol has no or minimal impact on external network/Fabric state orI/O data paths.

In NL_PORT mode, registered state change notification (RSCN) frames aredirectly forwarded to the back-end N-ph_PORTs, such as the ports 208.

In the Fibre Channel N_Port aggregation application, one front end Nport connected to a fabric would aggregate traffic from the backend Nports 208. Each the N port 110 is allowed to have up to 64 K openexchanges in the fibre channel protocol. The front end N port 110 wouldthen allocate its 64 K exchange IDs (on the fabric connection) among thebackend N ports 208. As an example, the exchange ID can be a 16 bitentity. To distribute the 64 K exchange IDs among (m) number of thebackend N ports 208, n bits, where m<=2^(n), will be needed to identifythe backend N ports 208. The (n) most significant bits of the exchangeID are used to identify a particular one backend N ports 208; and theremaining (16-n) bits will represent a consecutive range of exchangeIDs.

For example, for 8 backend ports, each backend port gets 8 K of thefront end exchange IDs. The invention is not limited to any particularnumber of ports.

Fibre Channel standard FC-FS-2 specifies that an N port could have up to64 K exchanges. When a front end N port is used to aggregate traffic formultiple backend N ports, it is necessary to limit the number ofexchanges that each backend N port could open.

The ability to confine the number of exchanges on the front end N portto 64 K enables the front end N port to aggregate traffic from multipleback end N ports; and to be compliant with established Fibre ChannelStandards, which is an advantage over conventional means.

The approach can be modified and made applicable to allocate exchangeIDs unevenly to favor selected backend N ports if the applicationwarrants the uneven distribution. The modification is accomplished byallocating exchange IDs among x ports, where x is not a multiple of 2.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an exemplary method 900 of practicing afirst aspect of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 9, acommunication exchange is initiated between at least one initiator and aSAN, the exchange including transmission of a command frame, asindicated in step 902. In step 904, the exchange is monitored. And instep 906, the unique SID of one of the initiators is replaced with anSID of the Fibre channel switch.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an exemplary method 1000 of practicing asecond aspect of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 10, anumber (m) of N_ports present in a back end of the switch is determined,as indicated in step 1002. And in step 1004, the available exchange IDsare distributed across the number (m) of present N_ports. Each exchangeID comprises (j) bits, and (n) bits are used to identify each of thepresent backend ports, where m≦2^(n).

CONCLUSION

The present invention has been described above with the aid offunctional building blocks illustrating the performance of specifiedfunctions and relationships thereof. The boundaries of these functionalbuilding blocks have been arbitrarily defined herein for the convenienceof the description. Alternate boundaries can be defined so long as thespecified functions and relationships thereof are appropriatelyperformed.

Any such alternate boundaries are thus within the scope and spirit ofthe claimed invention. One skilled in the art will recognize that thesefunctional building blocks can be implemented by analog and/or digitalcircuits, discrete components, application-specific integrated circuits,firmware, processor executing appropriate software, and the like, or anycombination thereof. Thus, the breadth and scope of the presentinvention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplaryembodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the followingclaims and their equivalents.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fullyreveal the general nature of the invention that others can, by applyingknowledge within the skill of the art (including the contents of thereferences cited herein), readily modify and/or adapt for variousapplications such specific embodiments, without undue experimentation,without departing from the general concept of the present invention.

Therefore, such adaptations and modifications are intended to be withinthe meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments, basedon the teaching and guidance presented herein. It is to be understoodthat the phraseology or terminology herein is for the purpose ofdescription and not of limitation, such that the terminology orphraseology of the present specification is to be interpreted by theskilled artisan in light of the teachings and guidance presented herein,in combination of one of ordinary skill in the art.

1. A method for connecting multiple initiators to a storage area network(SAN) via a Fibre channel fabric using a single N_port fibre channelswitch, the multiple initiators being associated with a common domainidentification (DID), each initiator having a unique sourceidentification (SID), the method comprising: initiating a communicationexchange between at least one of the initiators and the SAN, theexchange including transmission of a command frame; monitoring theinitiated exchange communication exchange; and replacing the unique SIDof one of the initiators with an SID of the fibre channel switch.
 2. Amethod for connecting multiple initiators to a storage area network(SAN) via a Fibre channel fabric comprising facilitating communicationbetween the initiators and the SAN in accordance with N_port standards.3. The method of claim 2, wherein the multiple initiators appear to theSAN as a single host bus adaptor.
 4. A device, comprising: a fibrechannel switch for connecting two or more fibre channel initiators to atarget via a fibre channel fabric; and an enterprise messaging exchange(eXM) module including an input/output (10) table, the eXM module beingconfigured for translating a frame address of an initiator originatedfibre channel protocol command frame (FCP_CMD) within a fibre channelexchange between one of the initiators and the target; wherein the eXMmodule includes an IO table and is configured to (i) process the FCP_CMDframe (ii) create a phantom port to N_port mapping for the fibre channelexchange and (iii) create a new entry within the IO table correspondingto the exchange.
 5. The device of claim 4, wherein each of theinitiators includes a unique source identification (SID); wherein theN-port aggregator blade includes an aggregator blade SID; and whereinthe eXM module is further configured to (iv) replace the SID of the oneinitiator with the aggregator blade SID.
 6. The device of claim 5,wherein the two or more fibre channel initiators are associated with acommon domain identification (DID).
 7. The device of claim 4, whereinthe fibre channel switch includes (i) a phantom port configured forconnection to the two or more fibre channel initiators and (ii) anN_port configured for connection to the fibre channel fabric.
 8. Thedevice of claim 4, wherein the fibre channel switch further comprises anapplication Pe port and an application Ne port, the Pe and Ne portsbeing configurable to facilitate communication between the fibre channelswitch and the eXM module.
 9. The device of claim 8, wherein the deviceis an N_port aggregator blade.
 10. The device of claim 9, wherein acorresponding frame originating at the target is forwarded to the oneinitiator via the eXM module, the eXM module (i) associating thecorresponding frame with the fibre channel exchange, (ii) replacing aDID of the corresponding frame with the common DID.
 11. The device ofclaim 10, wherein the eXM is a field programmable gate array.
 12. Thedevice of claim 11, wherein frames subsequent to the FCP_CMD frame aretranslated in accordance with their entry in the IO table.
 13. Thedevice of claim 12, wherein the eXM module is configured to track abeginning of the exchange, and ending of the exchange, a sequence begin,sequence end, and FCP_CMD command type.
 14. A computer readable mediumcarrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions for executionby one or more processors to connect multiple initiators to a storagearea network (SAN) via a Fibre channel fabric using a single N_portfibre channel switch, the multiple initiators being associated with acommon domain identification (DID), each initiator having a uniquesource identification (SID), the instructions when executed by the oneor more processors causing the one or more processors to: initiate acommunication exchange between at least one of the initiators and theSAN, the exchange including transmission of a command frame; monitor theinitiated exchange communication exchange; and replace the unique SID ofone of the initiators with an SID of the fibre channel switch.